U.S. Historians Reject July 4 White House Attack on Smithsonian Museum
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 6
U.S. Historians Reject July 4 White House Attack on Smithsonian Museum
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 6
Summary
The Organization of American Historians on Monday denounced the White House’s July 4 report on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as a partisan ideological attack masquerading as historical critique.
The group said the administration was trying to punish the museum for presenting U.S. history as complex and inclusive, rather than as a single celebratory national story.
Its statement accused the White House of ignoring decades of scholarship and seeking to erase conflict, diversity and struggle from the American past under anti-DEI and anti-woke rhetoric.
The White House report had charged the museum with promoting transgender issues and pro-immigrant activism, while faulting it for not emphasizing the founders’ heroism and Christianity’s role in shaping the nation.